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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Lined Canvas Diaper Box

You can find almost anything on Pinterest…it’s true. Upon wasting my time searching the other day, I found a fantastic tutorial on upcycling diaper boxes. Hmmm…what could I do with this? Oh, yes – toys scattered all about our living room floor: check, a desire to get said toys put away when not in use: check, cute fabric laying there staring at me: check! I decided to take on this project!

I changed some things from this tutorial I found, but you could use either hers or mine. They are basically the same.

My pictures are definitely not as good as hers :) And the boxes in the pictures are sometimes different as I have done a few of these.

What you’ll need

Diaper Box

Canvas fabric (1 yard covered two diaper boxes)

Measuring tape

Spray adhesive

Craft glue

Scissors (or rotary cutter and mat)

Here’s how

Cut the flaps off of your box. Might I suggest using an x-acto knife? Scissors were a big pain to work with! Tape the handles down on the sides of the box, making a little more support and backing for the canvas.

Measure the outside width and length of the box. I found that ironing my canvas prior to adhesion worked best. Cut canvas to those measurements.

Width

Length

Cut your fabric

Mine was 25 x 31

Center your box on the canvas. (Pull up the sides to make sure it’s right in the middle…try both the short and the long sides. You DON’T want to get half glued on only to find out it wasn’t in the center!)

Measure out from corner of the box (to the corner of your fabric) 2 inches and mark it with a pin. [The optional tutorial used a disappearing ink marker, but with black fabric…eh, a pin worked just fine.] Then cut a straight line from your pin to both the outsides of your fabric. (You will end up cutting out a fabric square- you won’t need it.) Do this with all the corners and it will be a cross when finished.

Don’t forget to cut the 2 inches from the pin toward the box.

Spray your adhesive on the long sides of box and pull up the canvas sides. Smooth out the fabric. Do this on both side of the box. (Unfortunately no picture for this.) Go ahead and spray a small strip of adhesive on the short ends of your box and fold over the extra fabric.

On your short side “flap” apply a line of craft glue as if continuing a line from the box.

Fold over the extra fabric so it's even with the box and smooth it out.

Do this on both sides so that the folded fabric is aligned with your box. Now spray the short side of the box with adhesive and lift fabric onto it and smooth it out. Repeat on the other side.

If the canvas goes above your box simply cut it off (or leave it!) and if it is a bit too short, don’t worry about it. The liner should cover it!

Thank you for all your kind posts!Questions? Go ahead and ask away. I will try to keep the answers updated on this same post.

Using wallpaper instead of canvas: I imagine wallpaper would work great since I used a spray adhesive rather than hot glue or regular glue. In fact, any fabric will most likely work. I used canvas as I thought that it would stand up to wear and tear better than others.

Using canvas on the inside: You could totally continue the canvas on the inside instead of sewing a liner! Just make your "cross" sections longer!

Do you think I could get away with doing the whole thing with liquid glue instead of spray adhesive? Using regular glue or even hot glue would most likely work; however, you may get bubbles and bumps after it dries. The box might also warp a little bit. If you try it, go ahead and let me know! I'd love to hear if it works!

If you are wanting the liner tutorial, it can be found here (http://designsbymke.blogspot.com/2012/01/fabric-liner.html). If you were just wondering about the canvas, I simply cut off any extra fabric, but it could certainly be folded over and kept down with spray adhesive.

Do you think you could repeat the method used for the outside on the inside? I am not great at my sewing machine and as Sara and Brandie stated the one liner link you posted looks a little beyond my capabilities. :)

Have you posted your liner tutorial yet? I am not a sewer. I can sew by hand if I had to (buttons, holes in pockets) and I keep hoping that your tutorial would be an easy sew. I love that the outside cover was adhesive! Thanks! This might actually make a pretty way to organize my office. Thanks!!

Wonderful tutorial! I read both yours and the one you were inspired by, and honestly, I like yours a bit better! Do you think I could get away with doing the whole thing with liquid glue instead of spray adhesive? I'm trying to get better about using what I have instead of buying more supplies, hehe. :)

Using regular glue or even hot glue would most likely work; however, you may get bubbles and bumps after it dries. The box might also warp a little bit. If you try it, go ahead and let me know! I'd love to hear if it works!

I didn't have diaper boxes so I purchased a "nylon,canvas type" basket at the dollar store,some even had a handle on the outside, and just had to make the liner....beautiful,and and cost a lot less, thanks for sharing

I did this today with fleece instead of canvas because it was something I had on hand in abundance. Because of how thick the material is, you can see where the fabric is folded over, but you can't see the globs of dried hot glue. I don't have the sewing machine to do a liner (nor do I have the skill, time, or desire) but I might ask my mother in law to help me make one later. My box is a nice dark heather gray, filled with odds and ends on top of my dryer. I had another container there, but I didn't like people being able to see inside of it (it had holes cut out) and it was bright pink. I have to take down my box when I do any drying, but I had to do that anyways.

Really nice idea. I like the idea of using a fleece too. I moved into my house about four months ago but some of our things are still in self storage as I can't bare to sort through them all. I do like the idea of making pretty boxes which I can stick in the utility room though. A beautiful disguise :)

Hi Mandy. I followed a friend's link to this on pinterest. Good idea. I also noticed your "about me" profile, and see that it tells about your husband and child, leaving readers wondering about who *you* are. Just an observation.

I'm going to put a few of these in my garage go I think I'll just spray paint them or maybe use mod podge over whatever fabric I use. It would be a dusty mess, using fabric in the garage. I'll save making pretty ones for in the house!

Hey there! Just wanted to let you know we featured you in our Favorite Find Fridays post over at Whimsically Homemade. We used one of your pictures. If that's a problem let us know and we'll remove it immediately. Thanks for your great inspiration!

What we think is trash can still be put into good use, with the help of our creativity and practicality. Like the one shown above, paper boxes can still bu re-used to reduce wastage. This goes to show that we can do so much with paper products instead of just throwing them in the bin. From paper documents to computer hard drives, we are fortunate that they can still serve various purposes for us these days.

We have a little one due in January :) I can't wait to upcycle our diaper boxes for extra storage! They will be great to store cloth diapers later on as well as lotions and other baby items. Thanks for the idea!

Hi! I have 5 year old twin girls and a 3 year old boy = a heck of a lot of toys. I have the closetmaid square shelving in our playroom but the fabric bins they sell are expensive and don't hold up AT ALL. I saw a link to your blog on Pinterest and it caught my eye because I have an abundance of Target diaper boxes! So, I bought the supplies and started today. I set out to do SIXTEEN boxes and boy it seems like a daunting task - plus tons of wasted material. So...after box number 1, I decided to fold the cross-shaped fabric in half and create a pattern using newsprint paper that we had laying around. Now I've got a mass production line going and it's not nearly as daunting! Regardless, AWESOME idea! And heck, if one of the boxes gets stomped on, sat on or crushed I can just make another one :-) I just ordered some adorable Michael Miller fabric from etsy for liners - maybe a bit excessive but I love his fabric and it will look SOOOO stinking cute in our playroom! Thanks again :-)

I found your blog through a pintrest post - I am LOVING all your craft idea and especially this up-cycled box. I also went through the liner tutorial, great & easy instructions. I will certainly return soon.Blessings,Mrs.B

Thanks for the wonderful idea. I made mine with wrapping paper that matched my room, and tissue paper (like for presents) that matched my kids rooms. For the kiddos I lined them with duct tape for easy wipe out. absolutely love these.

I did a very similar craft project 20 years ago using equal parts white glue and water, painted it on the cardboard box, and used lightweight cotton (like quilt fabric) for the coverings. I did not have problems with bubbles--just smoothed out the fabric as I was applying it. The boxes are still holding up, so I imagine that canvas would be even more durable. I used Xerox paper boxes with tops and covered the box tops too, so the boxes make great covered storage.

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